Fabregas Comments Misinterpreted by English Media…It Must be Thursday (UPDATE)

By: Martin | June 25th, 2009

First off, I know not all readers of this blog are American, and this is a site devoted to English soccer, but I’ve got to express my joy and amazement at the Yanks’ 2-0 win over the top-ranked team in the world yesterday. Simply amazing performance by us–all credit to the players for going out there with courage and confidence and standing up to Spain, and all credit to coach Bob Bradley for implementing the perfect game plan to beat the Spaniards. It’s definitely one of the biggest wins in USMNT history, and clinches at least a 2nd place finish in the Confederations Cup, which is our best ever result in a truly international tournament in the modern era.

It should be a great confidence booster for the boys, and will hopefully give them the belief that on their day they can beat any team in the world. I suppose there’s also a danger that they could get overconfident, and forget that teams like Costa Rica and Honduras can still give them all they can handle. I also think it’s an important result because it could turn in the international spotlight on the team, and give players like Oguchi Onyewu, Charlie Davies, Landon Donovan, Michael Bradley, Jay DeMerit, Jozy Altidore, and Benny Feilhaber some more exposure and perhaps a chance to actually play and prove themselves in one of Europe’s top leagues. Here’s hoping, anyway.

Okay, enough of that. On to Cesc. Numerous English media sources are seizing upon a Spanish-language interview given by Cesc and misinterpreting what he said to mean that he’s unhappy at Arsenal and is thinking about leaving the club to go to Real Madrid. Now, stop me if you’ve heard this before, but this is not what he said. At all. I would urge you to check out the always entertaining and always sensible Arseblog’s take on Cesc’s interview, which goes question by question into what Cesc was actually saying, which was that he is unhappy that Arsenal hasn’t won trophies the last couple of seasons, and that his family would still love him if he left Arsenal for Real Madrid. The bottom line:

So, let’s sum up. Cesc is not happy because we have not won trophies. That pretty much puts him on a par with every Arsenal fan, so why are people up in arms about this? He’s angry at our inability to win, like Arsenal fans. It hurts him that we haven’t managed to win a trophy. Good. I’m glad. It hurts me too. That doesn’t mean I’m going to stop supporting Arsenal and go support United or Real. He’s got a family who loves him but this somehow means he’s going to Madrid. Nonsense.

And that’s right. The bottom line is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with anything Cesc said, and nothing in there that indicates that he wants to leave Arsenal for Madrid. He’s staying, and knowing him, he’ll probably come out and make an announcement to reassure everyone sometime soon.

Honestly, this is so tedious–it seems like weekly that Cesc says something fairly innocuous in an interview, and the football media somehow twists his words into saying that he hates Arsenal and is going to defecate at midfield of the Emirates, punch Wenger in the face, key every car in the player’s parking lot, and catch the first flight from Heathrow to Madrid. But Cesc has shown us through his words and his actions that he loves the club, he loves the manager, he loves his teammates, and he loves the fans. I do think he’ll go back to Spain someday, but I think he wants worse than anything to win trophies at Arsenal, so when he says he’s angry and unhappy, it doesn’t mean he’s leaving. It means he gives a crap, and that’s exactly the kind of thing I want players to say in interviews.

In other news, AC Milan have said that they may still be interested in Adebayor. But it sounds like they’d only be interested if they couldn’t get Eden Dzeko and Luis Fabiano. I’m on record as saying I wouldn’t mind Adebayor moving on if we could get a decent price for him and put that money right back into the squad, but at this point it just doesn’t really sound like it’s going to happen. Maybe if nothing else this will send Adebayor a message–when you work hard, chase after the ball, bother defenders, and finish your chances, like you did in 2007-2008, every elite team in the world is interested in you. When you alienate your own supporters, act lazy and jog around, don’t track back, don’t chase the ball, and don’t finish your chances, like you did for much of 2008-2009, teams suddenly aren’t all that interested. So even if he wants to leave Arsenal to play for a bigger club, maybe at least he’ll give us another season like 2007-2008, which would help us tremendously and allow us to sell him at a much higher price.

Finally, I know this wasn’t even a rumor on most other sites, but you may recall that my choice to solve our defensive woes was Valencia’s Raul Albiol. He’s young, he’s fairly big and strong, and he’s got Champions League and high-level international experience, and since Valencia are in such dire financial straits, they’d be hard-pressed to turn down a decent offer for him. I wasn’t the only one with that idea, however, as Real Madrid have reportedly swooped in for the Spanish international for £12.8million. It’s a decent price for a quality young center back, but frankly, we probably never had much chance–Albiol is Spanish, I believe he has said he would prefer to stay in Spain, and we never would have been able to win a bidding war with Madrid. I still think finding another center back or defensive midfielder should be a priority, but it will have to be elsewhere.

I’ll be out of town this weekend for a wedding, so posting may be erratic or not at all from me over the next couple of days. Hope you all have a happy and safe weekend, and here’s hoping the USA can shock the world once again in the finals.

UPDATE: Well, as I predicted, Cesc has come out and refuted all this nonsense. Sayeth el capitan:

I’m not sure how many times I need to talk directly about my commitment to Arsenal as I continue to say the same thing over and over again, but it appears that every time I have spoken to the Spanish media recently, my words have bounced back to England, leaving question marks about my future. So, for anyone who is unclear or may have misunderstood what my position is, let me make myself absolutely crystal clear. I am wholeheartedly committed to Arsenal and my future lies with this great Club. It is a fact that we have not won a trophy for four years and yes, I am angry about that, but that anger stems from the deep deep desire I have to win things with Arsenal. I care about this Club and believe in this team. I am proud to captain this team and proud to wear the shirt. It really upsets me when people express my thoughts otherwise.

Sigh. I love Cesc as much as a heterosexual man can love another heterosexual man that he’s never met. Don’t ever change, Cesc.